This work is an extension of that performed by Alan, et al. [1, 2], investigating the effect of surface characteristics on the strength of nanoscale silicon (Si) structures. Progress, utilizing CNF, during the 2011/2012 year has been focused in two main areas. We have replicated the process of Alan, et al., to fabricate nanoscale Si beams with current equipment and techniques, and have made pro...

TM , using focused ion beam technology has been characterized. To date, most microfabrication in this material has used UV lithography and UV lasers, with minimum feature size of around 10µm determined by the grain structure, though there has been some recent work using high energy proton irradiation. Focused ion beam technology offers two potential advantages: features are etched directly with...

We present a method to analyze the coupling of lateral displacements in nanoscale structures, in particular waveguide grating mirrors (WGMs), into the phase of a reflected Gaussian beam using a finite-difference time-domain simulation. Such phase noise is of interest for using WGMs in high-precision interferometry. We show that, to the precision of our simulations (10(-7) rad), waveguide mirror...

Nanoscale resolution in material sciences is usually restricted to scanning electron beam microscopes. Here we present a procedure that allows single molecule resolution of the sample surface with visible light. Highlighting the performance we used electron beam lithography to generate highly regular nanostructures consisting of interconnected cubes. The samples were labeled with Alexa 647 dyes...

Glasses are usually shaped through the viscous flow of a liquid before its solidification, as practiced in glass blowing. At or near room temperature (RT), oxide glasses are known to be brittle and fracture upon any mechanical deformation for shape change. Here, we show that with moderate exposure to a low-intensity (<1.8×10(-2) A cm(-2)) electron beam (e-beam), dramatic shape changes can be ac...

We present a polarization-insensitive plasmonic photoconductive terahertz emitter that uses a two-dimensional array of nanoscale cross-shaped apertures as the plasmonic contact electrodes. The geometry of the cross-shaped apertures is set to maximize optical pump absorption in close proximity to the contact electrodes. The two-dimensional symmetry of the cross-shaped apertures offers a polariza...

In light of the success of 3D printing using fused-deposition modeling or higher-resolution variants with lasers applicable to polymers and metals, one may wonder whether an analogous approach exists on the nanometer scale. Indeed it does. With the aid of focused particle beam-induced deposition (FPBID) it is possible to create solid-state structures on the nanoscale. However, in contrast with ...

We demonstrate a versatile, bottom-up method of forming metal and semiconducting nanoparticles by exposing precursor metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to an electron beam. Using a transmission electron microscope to initiate and observe growth, we show that the composition, size, and morphology of the nanoparticles are determined by the chemistry and structure of the MOF, as well as the electron ...

Single-walled carbon nanotubes are readily observable in a scanning electron microscope, which traditional models fail to explain. We present an ab initio model to explain how the electron beam can interact with these structures despite the very small, nanoscale, interaction volume. In particular, we show how the electron beam can generate very strong secondary electron emission from the tip of...